Object of the Day

Hot chocolate has been a fashionable drink since the eighteenth century, and the popularization of the beverage also saw the rise of new designs related to its consumption and preparation. This ornament print by the French designer and printmaker Jean-Baptiste Fay shows twelve different designs for chocolate cups. Each cup is decorated with a diverse...

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Cabelle Ahn

Date

March 3, 2015

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This simple, small rectangular cloth is an example of four-selvedged weaving—the process of weaving cloths of specific sizes and shapes without cutting any edges. The tradition was practiced for millennia in the Andes, and is rarely found elsewhere in the world (in most cultures, woven textiles were cut from the loom). Inherent in the four-selvedged...

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Elena Phipps

Date

March 2, 2015

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The design for this stapler was patented in the United States in 1934 by Fridolin Polzer who was at the time working for E.H. Hotchkiss Company, a leading manufacturer of stapling machines, based in Norwalk, Connecticut. In Japanese, the word for “stapler” is “hotchikisu” after the E.H. Hotchkiss Company, which first shipped staplers to Japan...

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Emily Orr

Date

March 1, 2015

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This textile is created in double ikat technique, in which both the warp and weft threads are tie-dyed before weaving in order to create a pattern. The complex and time-consuming process is primarily practiced in India, Japan, and Indonesia. Within Indonesia, this technique is known as geringsing, meaning ‘without sickness’ or ‘without evil’ and is...

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Alexia Fawcett

Date

February 27, 2015

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When the Meissen porcelain manufactury began its operations in 1710, its focus was on producing fine dinner services and traditional functional decorative objects, such as vases. Meissen’s reputation and passion for the modeling of elaborate porcelain figures did not arise until two decades or so later, thanks to King Augustus of Saxony who, enthralled by...

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Catherine Powell

Date

February 26, 2015

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In 1664, Versailles was briefly transformed into a mythical and enchanted fairytale land. From May 7th to 13th, the court of Louis XIV arranged a festival of Les Plaisirs de l’Ile Enchantée (Pleasures of an Enchanted Island) in honor of Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV and the queen Maria Theresa, although the...

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Cabelle Ahn

Date

February 25, 2015

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There is ALOT going on in this arabesque panel attributed to eighteenth-century wallpaper powerhouse, Jean Baptiste Réveillon. The pattern was executed in shades of pink, green, orange and brown on a light-colored ground. As was standard for the time, the design is block printed, and the panel is composed of several smaller sheets of handmade...

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Anna Rasche

Date

February 24, 2015

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A significant acquisition to the Cooper Hewitt Library’s special collections in 2014 was Édouard Guichard’s Die Harmonie der Farben (The Harmony of Colors). A rare and important work heavily influenced by the 1839 De la loi du contraste simulanté des Couleurs by M.E. Chevreul, this edition was published in Frankfurt Germany in 1882. Profusely illustrated...

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Jennifer Cohlman Bracchi

Date

February 23, 2015

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The Castellani jewelry firm (1814 – 1927) became known for its “Italian Archaeological jewelry,”[1] which consisted of copies and imitations of Roman, Greek, and Etruscan jewelry. The firm’s works in this style became especially popular starting in the 1850s due to a rise in nationalism as a result of efforts to unify Italy, though they...